MyBLog

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Asking For Facebook Passwords... Disturbing?

Could This Even Be Trouble For the Employer?

This week, the Washington Post ran a story
on an example of a potentially disturbing trend in Human Resources
practices. They told the tale of Justin Bassett. Bassett was
interviewing for a new job. In the course of the interview, he was asked
for his Facebook password. Bassett refused to give it and even walked
out on the interview, saying he did not want to work for a company that
would ask for such personal information.

If Justin
Bassett's experience were an anomaly, a strange occurrence that most
companies would not repeat, that would be one thing. But, it is becoming
more and more common for employers to ask for such things. And, it
doesn't stop at Facebook passwords. Some employers are asking for
Twitter and other social site passwords, as well as email passwords.

Employers Protect Themselves

It
is not uncommon, and is almost expected nowadays, for employers to do
comprehensive web searches on prospective employees. Companies want to
know as much as they legally can find out about the people they are
hiring. Is this person a habitual drunk? Does he have children? Does he
have a tendency to bad-mouth his past employers publicly? Does he post
potentially embarrassing material online?

Sometimes, a
simple Facebook search will reveal a person's profile, pictures,
personal information, posts and comments. Especially with Facebook's
dizzying security and privacy policies and changes over the past few
years, a person may not be aware of what they can hide and how. Combine
that with Facebook's incessant insistence that we "share" everything
about ourselves so we can have a "better browsing experience", and the
possibility of embarrassing revelations gets almost unavoidable.

Employers
who have not yet committed to hiring someone have free reign to reject
their application for any legal reason, or no reason at all. They are
under no obligation, generally, to explain themselves. So, any "hitches"
their online search turns up could result in an application being
summarily round-filed. It could be over political affiliation, lifestyle
choices, friendships, opinions publicly stated, or any other reason.
Employers don't have to tell you why they "chose to go another
direction".

But, what if you've been careful? You've
enabled privacy settings. You've insulated your Facebook and other
accounts from public scrutiny. You Google yourself and run other checks
regularly. Your public face is neat, even if your private life is wild.
Is there some expectation that your life is your own? Can an employer
rightly - or even legally - ask for your Facebook login and password so
they can walk right through your meticulously set up barriers for
privacy?

Justin Bassett thought not. And, he acted on
his values in that case. He not only refused to grant access, but he
withdrew his application and walked out. He was in that ideal position:
to be able to evaluate his potential employer just as stringently as he
was being evaluated. But, many people are not in a position to do that.
They feel they must trade their opinions and values on such matters as
privacy for a much-needed paycheck.

It's A Hot Topic

The
topic has come up a lot within the past few days. It has been a
question that has been asked a lot on Twitter, resulting in such
comments as these: